Tesla vs. GM: half the revenue, twenty times the market value

At the October 9, 2026 close, Tesla was worth $1.51 trillion and General Motors $72.6 billion — about 21 times as much — even though GM’s 2025 revenue of $185.0 billion was almost twice Tesla’s $94.8 billion. The last twelve months went in opposite directions: Tesla fell 12.1% and GM rose 47.9%.

Tesla’s 3.95 billion shares include about 710 million restricted shares held by its chief executive: about 423.7 million from the 2025 performance award, not yet earned, and about 286.5 million received when he exercised his 2018 options in June 2026, which vest in January 2028. Market value uses all of them, as most quote services do. The P/E uses the 3.54 billion diluted shares behind earnings per share; market value divided by profit would give about 397.

What is inside the revenue

Car sales were 69.4% of Tesla’s 2025 revenue. Energy storage and solar brought $12.8 billion (13.5%, up 26.6%), services and other $12.5 billion, and regulatory credits sold to other carmakers $2.0 billion. GM’s total includes GM Financial, its auto-lending arm, with $17.1 billion (9.2%); GM North America was $154.3 billion, or 83.4%. Tesla’s revenue fell in 2025 for the first time in our series, which starts in 2011 (−2.9%). It then grew 25.5% in the second quarter of 2026, and trailing-twelve-month revenue passed $100 billion for the first time.

Deliveries and wholesale are different counts

Tesla reports deliveries to customers: 1,808,581 in 2023, about 1,789,000 in 2024 and 1,636,129 in 2025, two straight years of decline. In the first three quarters of 2026 it delivered 358,023, 480,126 and 486,532 vehicles. GM reports wholesale sales to dealers and fleets, which is what turns into revenue, and leaves out its China joint ventures: 3.80 million in 2025, down 5.3%. The two numbers are not the same measure, so they do not say who sold more cars.

Profit, and the years with a footnote

Tesla’s first full profitable year was 2020, at $721 million. Its 2023 profit of $15.0 billion included a one-time, non-cash tax benefit of $5.93 billion; profit was $7.1 billion in 2024 and $3.8 billion in 2025. GM lost $3.9 billion in 2017, the year the U.S. tax reform made it record $7.3 billion of tax expense. In 2024 its China joint ventures produced an equity loss of $4.4 billion, mostly impairments and restructuring. In 2025 it took $1.6 billion of electric-vehicle charges in the third quarter and about $6.0 billion in the fourth, which left a fourth-quarter loss of $3.3 billion and a full-year profit of $2.7 billion.

In the second quarter of 2026, Tesla earned $1.1 billion and had negative free cash flow of $1.1 billion. GM reported $48.0 billion of revenue, $1.3 billion of net income and $3.9 billion of EBIT-adjusted, and raised its full-year guidance for the second time.

Buybacks on one side, new shares on the other

GM spent $34.0 billion on buybacks from 2016 to 2025, including a $10 billion accelerated repurchase approved in November 2023, and approved another $6.0 billion in January 2026. Its average diluted share count fell from 1,640 million in 2015 to 973 million in 2025, a 41% drop, and 877.5 million shares were outstanding in July 2026. GM suspended its dividend after March 2020, resumed it in September 2022 at $0.09 a quarter, and raised it to $0.18 in January 2026. Tesla has never paid a dividend or bought back stock; its diluted share count, adjusted for the 2020 and 2022 splits, rose from 1,923 million in 2015 to 3,528 million in 2025.

$1,000 over 5 and 10 years

GM came out ahead over the last five years, although Tesla led in 44 of the 60 months and the lead changed hands 11 times, most recently in July 2026. Over ten years Tesla turned $1,000 into $26,085. The longest common window starts at the end of November 2010, the month the new GM went public again after its 2009 bankruptcy; Tesla was ahead in 181 of those 190 months. The S&P 500 beat GM in all three windows.

Funds

Ten of the 38 managers this site tracks held Tesla at the end of June 2026 and nine held GM, almost all of them quantitative or multi-strategy funds. The largest holder of both was Cliff Asness’s AQR, with $1.24 billion of Tesla and $1.08 billion of GM. In the second quarter, Andreas Halvorsen cut his Tesla shares by 78%, Baillie Gifford by 44% and Ken Griffin by 41%, while Renaissance Technologies held about five times as many shares and Daniel Sundheim opened a position. In GM, Steve Cohen raised his shares 155%, Halvorsen cut 45%, and Prem Watsa kept the same 375,965 shares. Since June 30, Tesla has fallen 9.0% and GM risen 7.3%.

Berkshire Hathaway held GM in every quarter from the start of our data in 2016 until mid-2023, peaking at 80 million shares in 2020, and sold out in the third quarter of 2023. It has not reported a Tesla position in any quarter since 2016.

Insiders sold at both; none bought

No insider bought either stock in the twelve months to October 9, 2026. Tesla insiders sold $87.7 million: director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson $30.0 million and director James Murdoch $26.7 million, both under 10b5-1 plans; director Kimbal Musk $25.6 million in December 2025 without a plan; and chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja $5.4 million, sold by the company to cover taxes on vesting stock. Elon Musk did not sell. His filings in the period are the 2025 award, a gift of 210,699 shares, the cancellation of a 96-million-share interim award, and the exercise of his 2018 options.

GM insiders sold $167.7 million, all under 10b5-1 plans: chief executive Mary Barra $87.0 million, from options exercised in the same filings, president Mark Reuss $62.4 million, and four other executives $18.2 million.

Recent notes from the filings: Tesla decommissioned the Model S and X lines at its Fremont factory to build its Optimus robot there, started Cybercab production in Texas, and signed a $20 billion term loan and an $8 billion revolving credit line in September 2026. It also holds $2.0 billion of SpaceX stock, less than 1%, which replaced a preferred stake in xAI. GM said in December 2024 it would no longer fund Cruise’s robotaxi development; Cruise revenue was $1 million in 2025. Daily data is on the Tesla and General Motors pages. Not investment advice.